In a special Viewpoint article for Music Week, Vicky Foxcroft, the Labour MP for Lewisham North, discusses routes into the music business in the UK, and how she would like to change the situation...
"Growing up working-class in Lancashire in the 1980s and 1990s, the arts were a much-needed escape. After multiple house moves and other challenges led to me failing my GCSEs, a BTEC in Performing Arts got my education back on track and I went on to study Drama and Business at university.
"My career may have taken a different turn after I got involved in politics at university, but I never lost my interest in the arts and was really happy to be elected to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee last year. While I never pursued a creative career, I think when I was younger I assumed that if you were good enough, it could happen for anyone. I’m not sure many would say that now.
“Bit by bit, the rungs that helped a galaxy of working-class talent climb to the top in years gone by, have been kicked out of the ladder”. This line from the recent Class Ceiling report, which takes a deep dive into the class gap in the Greater Manchester arts world, gets straight to the core of the problem. I could get political here and blame the 14 years of austerity we endured under successive Conservative governments, but the fact is it’s now on Labour to level the playing field for working-class people and I want to see us get it right.
Creative careers have of course always involved an element of risk, but how can you afford to take that risk if you know there’s nobody to bail you out if it goes wrong?
Vicky Foxcroft MP
As part of my bid to move this issue up the political agenda, I am hosting a series of roundtable meetings with people from across the creative industries. I started with music and brought together a wide-ranging group, from record company executives and publishers to composers and touring performers. Crucially, they had one thing in common: they came from working-class roots to build successful careers.
I was struck by how many said their advice for young working-class people hoping to break into the industry now would be “don’t bother”. Or at least, not unless you have a financial safety net to fall back on. Creative careers have of course always involved an element of risk, but how can you afford to take that risk if you know there’s nobody to bail you out if it goes wrong?
"The other barriers which came up in our discussion fell into four categories: education and career pathway concerns, especially a lack of well-informed careers advice; the London-centric structure of the industry and lack of (especially paid) internships and early career positions outside the capital; a feeling of not having the confidence or skills to network; and, perhaps most depressing of all, the devaluation of the arts in the UK.
"While some of these barriers are potentially easier to overcome – we heard, for example, about some great mentoring opportunities – I believe we can only truly remove the barriers to working-class people making a career in the arts if we address the financial side. Should we, for instance, follow Ireland’s example and introduce a basic income for creatives? I don’t have the answers yet, but I am grateful to everyone who has helped me get the conversation going.
"So, why is class one of the last barriers to a career in music? Maybe it’s because we’re just too British; the class system is so ingrained in our national psyche we don’t even know how to talk about. That’s something I am working to change here in Parliament.
